Automatic flushing-valve.



S. W. MENZIES.

AUTOMATIC FLUSHING VALVE.

APPLICATION FHID Auem, 1915.

1,176,972. Patented Mar. 28,1916.

WXTNEEEES.

THE coLu1\\BlA PLANOuRAPI-I co.. WASHINGTON, D. c.

of Lambton, Province @FFTQEZ.

STAFFORD w. Menzies, or sen-ma, ONTARIO, oANAnA; 7

AUTOMATIC FLUSHING-VALVE.

ToaZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STAFFORD W. MEN- ZIES, of the city of Sarnia, in thecounty of Ontario, Canada, a subject of the King of Great Britain, havemade certain new and'useful. ln'iprovements in Automatic'FlushingValves, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to valves used as a substitute for flushingtanks, and my object is to devise a valve of this type which will notonly be eflicient, but which will also be simpler, and therefore cheaperand less liable to get out of order than those at present known.

I attain my object by means of the constructions hereinafter describedancl-illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which- V Figure 1 is anelevation partly broken away showing my improved valve arranged inconnection'with a service pipeand reservoir; Fig. 2 is a verticalsection of the same closed; and Fig. 3 a vertical section of the sameopen.

1 lnthedrawings like numerals of reference indicate corresponding partsin the difierent figures. V

In Fig. 1, 1 is the service pipe which is connected with thereservoir 2.By means of the T-connection 3, a pipe 21 is connected with the servicepipe, this pipe 21 being con nected with the flushing valve. 7 V Y Theflushing valve comprises a casing 4 provided at oneside with aconnection 5' whereby it is connected to the pipe 21 and at the otherwhereby it is connected with thebowl to be flushed. Between the twoconnections is formed a valve seat 7, which will be horizontal when thedevice'is in use, and. is provided with the waterway or port 8 whichforms a communication between the inlet and outlet chambers provided bythe connections 5 and 6. This waterway, it will be noted, is somewhatless in diameter than the interior of the body of the casing below andabove it. p 1 e In alinement with the valve seat and above the same isformed the cylinder 9, which, by means of the opening 10, communicateswith the interior of the connection 5. This openingyof course, alsoforms part of the passageway for water through the device when the valveis open. Within the cylinder is Specification of Letters Patent.

closed as shown in .19 which ,fit than the body of the nut. Theseenlargeside with the connection 6.

Patented Mar. 28,1916.

7 Application filed. August 11,1915. Serial No. 45,026.

loosely fitted a ,pistonll provided with the stem 12 which extendsoutthrough the under side of the casing, the stufiing box 13 beingprovided to prevent leakage.

The upper end of the cylinder is closed by 3 the screw cap 14 which isprovided with the washer 15 to make a watertight fit. The piston isprovided with the washer l6 adapted to rest on the seat 7 when the valveis Fig. 2. The washer 16 is held in place by means. of the nut 17screwed on the stem 12 and constituting a throttling member. This nut isof peculiar shape as shown, which shaping fills a very importantfunction in the operation of the device. The nut, as will be seen, is ofsuch length that when the piston is raised as shown in Fig. 3, the loweredge of the throttling member is just above the valve seat. The nutorthrottling member, it will be seen, at all parts of its length forms avery loose fit in the port 8, but at its opposite ends it is providedwith the enlargements 1S and the waterway more closely ments in lengthare each approximately equal to the depth of the waterway 8.

The piston is moved by means of the lever 20 pivotally connected withthe lower end of the valve stem and fulcrumed on the casing of the valveby means of the pivoted link 22.

The operation of the device is as follows: lVhen it is desired to flushthe bowlwith which the device is employed, the lever 20 is raised. Thespace above the piston 11 is filled with water. as it is exposed topressure within the service pipe through the narrow space between itsinner wall and the periphery of the piston. While the lever is raisedthewater flows down around the outside of the piston. W hen the pistonis fully raised, there is a free How of water through the device. It nowthe lever be released, the weight of the parts tends to draw down thepiston to bring the washer 15 on to its seat. This movement isnecessarily slow owing to the comparatively restricted leakage past thepiston and sufiicient flow is thus maintained'for a sufiicient period oftime to efi'ec tively flush the bowl.

As the lower enlargement 19 on the nut reaches the waterway 8, the flowis greatly restricted. This allows the syphon action to empty the trap,which, of course, is always used in connection with the bowl.

due to water hammer which is commonly found with flushing valves of thistype. Much trouble is also experienced with piston valves used inconnection with such devices owing to the cutting action of sand whichis so commonly found in city water supplies.

To overcome this difficulty I providecircular grooves in the piston andfind that I thus overcome the trouble, as a space is thus provided'inwhich grains of sand may be caught instead of grinding between theopposed surfaces. From their lodgment in the grooves these grains ofsand are ultimately washed when the device isused.

It-is preferable to cut the grooves spirally as shown in Fig. 8, as sandlodging in a groove near the top may thus gradually travel downwardthrough the groove and escape at the bottom.

A considerably better effect is obtained if grooves are also formed inthe cylinder. These are preferably spiral. Assuming the grooves in thepiston to be a right hand spiral, the grooves in the cylinder are pref-.Oopies of this patent may he obtained for five cents each, byaddressing the Washington, D. C.

erably a left hand spiral. These grooves also afford restricted leakagepastthe piston.

What I claim as my invention is: r

A valve casing having an lnletchamber,

an outlet chamber, and a port connecting said'chambers;-a valve seatsurrounding saidport at the inlet side thereof; a cylinder formed inalinement with said-seat and above the same; a pistonloosely fitted insaid cylinder; a valve washer carried by said piston adapted to seat onthe valve seat aforesaid; a stem on said piston extending downwardthrough the casing; a throttling member forming a downward extensionfrom the piston, said throttling member being of materially lesscross-sectional area than and normally extending below said port andhaving at its end adjacent the washer an enlargement to ne'arly closethe port when the washer is almost down to its seat, said throttlingmember also having a second enlargement at its lower end, said secondenlargement lying below the port when the valve is closed and entirelyabove the port when the valve is fully. open; and a stuffing box on thecasing throughwhich the said stem passes. V Signed at Sarnia this 30thday of July, A. D. 1915, in the presence of the two undersignedwitnesses. I

STAFFORD 'W. MENZIES; V Witnesses: CARRIE NLMENZIES, ALBERT S. MACKLIN.

Commissioner of Patents,

